Every Nation missionaries live faith abroad

David and Caroline Webb leaving their mark in South Africa

SUSAN BRANDENBURGCorrespondent

Published Friday, February 16, 2007

When David Webb was growing up in St. Augustine, the youngest of Jean and Bob Webb's seven children, he occasionally slept on the floor. "It wasn't because I didn't have a bed," said David. "I was practicing to be a missionary in Africa someday."

His childhood vision became reality in 1995 when Webb, his wife, Caroline, and their four children moved to Africa as Christian missionaries of the Every Nation Family of Churches.

During the past 12 years, David and Caroline Webb have founded Grace Children's Home in Nairobi, Kenya and Baby Haven Orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa as well as building the Cotr Street Shelter in Nakuru, Kenya to serve children living on the streets. They are also pastors of His People Christian Church in Johannesburg.

On a New Year's visit to St. Augustine, the Webb children (who have increased to six), visited their grandmother Jean Webb, as well as aunts, uncles, and nearly two dozen cousins.

"There are an awful lot of us," said Jean Webb, 86, noting that the Webb family has been in St. Augustine for more than a century. "My husband's mother came in 1911," said Webb, "but her brother came earlier and sent back word, 'Yes, this is a good place to live.'" Although Jean doesn't remember her youngest son sleeping on the floor in preparation for the hardships of missionary work, she's not surprised that he's inherited the pioneering spirit of his ancestors. "We're so proud of David," she said. "He's a wonderful man of God, and he's making a difference in the world every day."

Parental guidance

David Webb credits his parents for setting him on his present life-path. Now deceased, Bob Webb, set a sterling example for his seven children, serving as district chairman of Boy Scouts, an active member of the St. Augustine Cathedral and the St. Johns County School Board, and a long-time educator at what is now the First Coast Technical Institute.Owner of a TV/radio repair business, Bob Webb serviced hearing aids for students at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind for 23 years. "I was a library aid there," said Jean Webb, "but I only did it for 14 years. We raised all our children to care about their community."

RuthAnne Wing remembers getting a letter from her brother, David, a couple of years after he moved his family to Africa. "A man in his congregation had approached him with a question," she recalled. "I don't understand you," said the man. "You are the Big Man here. In Africa, the Big Man sits and everyone waits on him, but you always run around serving people. Why?" Webb replied, "Well, m"Oh, now I understand," he said, nodding. "You're just like your father."

"It had never occurred to David that he was just like our Dad until that moment," said Wing, laughing.

On his application to Davidson College in North Carolina back in 1977, 17-year old David Webb wrote that his overall goal was "to be as productive as I can in whatever time I have and to somehow make life better for those around me." Last year, Webb (Class of '81) was awarded the prestigious John W. Kyukendall Award for Community Service, presented to an alumni in recognition of extraordinary service and demonstrated leadership through servant-hood. The plaque reads: "David Webb's life work is helping the forgotten children of Africa survive and thrive in some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. He is living a life of merciful, selfless commitment to humankind."

Following his graduation from Davidson College, Webb spent a year in Kenya teaching English as a second language in a secondary school run by the Catholic Diocese, but returned to attend George Washington University, where he earned a master's degree in international education. "I met Caroline at a church in Washington, D.C.," he said. "On one of our first dates, she told me she slept on the floor as a child, practicing to go to Africa."

You will return

Quoting a Bantu saying, "Once you drink from an African well, you return to it," Webb remembered when he and Caroline took the leap of faith and followed their calling. "I was a pastor at Metro Morningstar Church in Sterling, Va., and we had four children, but I wanted to go back to Africa." Concerned about the safety of his family, Webb went to his senior pastor for guidance. The pastor told him, "The safest place for you to be is in God's will for your life."

Metro Morningstar, one of the Every Nation Family of non-denominational Christian churches worldwide, remains their largest supporter and home church. They also receive support from Southpoint Community Church in Jacksonville, and from First Presbyterian Church of Tequesta in Jupiter, where Caroline Webb has family.

Recently, while speaking to a group at Southpoint, David Webb turned to his children and said, "I know our decision has made a great impact on your lives and your future. It has cost each of you something and I want to thank you." Noting that he had never publicly thanked them before, Webb said, "It just came to me this trip that they might have a sense of missing out - especially my two older children, John and Jean." On hearing their father's thanks, the two teens looked at each other and grinned.

"David's kids are great," said their uncle, Bob Webb. "They're well-grounded and have a good pulse on what's really important in the world." He recently asked his nephews and nieces to describe some differences between St. Augustine and Johannesburg. "They were amazed that the houses here don't have barbed wire fences around them," he said, "and they considered our streets deserted." Webb said the children described droves of people walking everywhere in South Africa, adding that crime is rampant. As to their lives as children of missionaries, they seemed to take it in stride.

Ministry support

Bob Webb owns Rabbit Hill Storage on State Road 16 and, along with other family members, has contributed to his brother's ministry for years. He talked of the "huge challenges" the missionaries face as they try to impact the estimated 12 million AIDS orphans on the streets of Africa. He remembered Joseph, the first young AIDS orphan that David and Caroline fostered. "When they found him, he was about 5 years old and he couldn't walk or talk. He was HIV-positive and he lived to be 9 ."

"Our prayer for 2007 is to open Child Haven in Johannesburg," said Webb. Currently, their Baby Haven Orphanage only has facilities to care for children up to 2 years of age. Child Haven will shelter children from ages 2 to 10. The United Nations predicts that there will be over 20 million AIDS orphans in the Republic of South Africa by 2010.

When confronted by these staggering statistics and the observation that what he and his family are doing is "just a drop in the bucket," Webb quotes Mother Theresa. "She said, 'If I didn't pick up that first one, I might not have picked up the other 42,000.'"

Since 2003, Baby Haven has placed dozens of infants for adoption, despite a government system over-burdened with the orphan crisis. Currently, there is a Supreme Court battle being fought in the Republic of South Africa to open the legal gates for tens of thousands of orphans to be adopted internationally. "That is another prayer we have for 2007," said Webb, "that Christian families in America will soon be able to adopt some of our babies." In recent years, the South African government has provided wide distribution of a drug called Nevirapine to pregnant women, resulting in 98 percent of newborns being HIV-free. "Many children now survive," said Webb, "but their mothers don't."

The David Webb family returned to South Africa the end of January. Back to saving lives one child at a time. "How many people get a chance to save someone's life every day?" asked Bob Webb. "I don't have to climb a mountain and ask a guru about the secret of life. My brother's found it."